The cane toads continue their relentless advance

A young girl holds a number of cane toads after going cane toad busting in Kununurra.

Supplied: Kimberley Toad Busters

They advance 55 kilometres a year and may soon be on a fast track to Derby.

They hitchhiked their way from the Northern Territory into WA in 2009 and have made the top 100 list of pests in the world.

An army of cane toads is continuing to make its way from the East Kimberley to other untouched areas of the state.

Kimberley Toad Buster scientist Jordy Groffen says the frontline is getting close to Halls Creek from where they have that fast track to Derby.

"Once they get to Halls Creek they will hit the Fitzroy Catchment and, if they hit the Fitzroy Catchment, they will be really quick," he said.

KTB have been running community-based training programs and toad bust outings in the East Kimberley for years but are having to move west ahead of the frontline to beat the toad at its own game.

The organisation hopes to train helpers in the West Kimberley to identify and catch the toads when they arrive.

Dr Groffen says sessions will be held in Derby where KTB will mock up a cane toad bust to teach school children and residents what to look for and how to catch the animals.

"We put life jackets on, the head torches, the bags, nets," he said.

"We take stuffed toads and we put them in the bushes so the kids know how to pick them up and know what they look like so they know what to do when the toads get there."

As the toads move, they evolve.

KTB's Ben Scott Virtue says they have learnt to survive and travel through drier areas by soaking up moisture in cow pats left behind by cattle mustered through the north.

"They use those fresh cow patties; they sit up on top and they are rehydrating and then all the dung beetles and all other beetles coming in to roll that cow patty back into the soil, the cane toad was just pecking them off," he said.

"I don't know whether the toad is specifically seeking out these mustering lines in order to colonise further or whether it is just plain happenstance, they've noticed a gap and they're filling that quite happily."

Decimated

The cane toad was introduced into Queensland from Hawaii in the 1930's by cane-growers to help eradicate a beetle which was damaging sugar cane crops.

The pests have since destroyed many native Australia animal species with their poison, including crocodiles and snakes.

Dr Groffen is in the middle of surveys near Halls Creek to assess the impact the toads will have this wet season.

They're not far from reaching the Marella Gorge which is home to freshwater crocodiles and turtles.

"This wet season they will hit this gorge so the crocodiles in there and the turtles in there can't move away to the next spot," he said.

"This is the same area where the cane toads reach - I think 30 kilometres from it at the moment.

"As soon as it starts raining, the river's going to start flooding and they will be in the gorge within a couple of months.

"We're absolutely sure it's going to happen this season."

It's expected the toads will almost wipe out the animals in that area.

"We expect to have 90 to 100 per cent loss of the freshwater crocodiles in this gorge so next year we're going to do the survey again and see what the impact of the cane toad is," Dr Groffen explained.

Manpower

This March the cane toads made it into the Purnululu National Park, which is home to the Bungle Bungle Ranges, and each year attracts more than 40,000 visitors to the East Kimberley.

As the cane toad continues its trail of destruction through the region, the Department of Environment and Conservation has moved to harness more manpower.

The DEC has positioned drop boxes throughout Purnululu so tourists can help dispose of the pests.

The state cane toad initiative's program leader Corrin Everett says the idea seems to be working well.

"We've started deploying more drop off points to people in Purnululu National Park," he said.

"The theory is the more people out there able to help in picking up cane toads and I guess it demonstrates that we're doing something about managing the situation.

"We're looking to improve the signage within our parks to continue to raise people's awareness of hitchhiker toads because the last thing we want is to put toads ahead of the frontline."

There is ongoing research into how to stop the cane toad.

Toad bait

There is also a list of studies and experiments to smarten up the locals and outsmart the toad, such as the DEC's toad bait aversion program launched last year.

A technique known as 'conditioned taste aversion' involves leaving nausea-inducing sausages, which smell like toads, out as bait for native species.

Pilot studies by the DEC and University of Sydney proved goannas and quolls could quickly learn to associate the smell and taste with the nausea feeling and hence avoid eating the poisonous toads in the future.

The WA government's cane toad strategy is in place until 2019.

Hopefully the toads haven't made it into your backyard by then. But if and when one does, there are ways of dealing with it.

The spotter is told not to kill it but to wear rubber gloves, pick the toad up by its back legs and put it into a container.